I have been trying to track down a nose-cone for my TI for several years.It appears that nose-cones are an Australia-only product! I have never found any manufacturer-importer that carries a TI nose-cone in the US.Hobie doesn't seem to want to carry them (warranty-problem perhaps?).The video shows the typical spray deflection...without the hassle of strapping fabric spray shields on the bow, etc.I would think with the number of Adventure Islands in the US, there would be enough of a market to justify importing them.

I guess there is not enough entrepreneurial spirit left in the US for a plastics firm to design and build units. With 3D printers becoming so common...you would think someone would whip out a plastics mold for one. A friend and I are thinking about buying a 3D printer to construct low-run items. I was told that making a plastic injection mold was about 99% of the cost to make an item.

You'd be right about that. The whole thing about injection molding is that you have to balance the expected number of unit sales against the initial tooling cost. Even if the tooling was very expensive, if you break it down over hundreds of thousand of sales you end up with pennies per item involved. However, if you only end up selling a few hundred of an item, each one could cost you hundreds of dollars.

You'd be right about that. The whole thing about injection molding is that you have to balance the expected number of unit sales against the initial tooling cost. Even if the tooling was very expensive, if you break it down over hundreds of thousand of sales you end up with pennies per item involved. However, if you only end up selling a few hundred of an item, each one could cost you hundreds of dollars.

Maybe Tom in the future Hobie will pop a wave deflector at the front of a new model similar to the adventure island and place a bit more camber in the Hull and a higher seat position like the Revo. Ahhhh just another avenue to drop another 4K down!

You'd be right about that. The whole thing about injection molding is that you have to balance the expected number of unit sales against the initial tooling cost. Even if the tooling was very expensive, if you break it down over hundreds of thousand of sales you end up with pennies per item involved. However, if you only end up selling a few hundred of an item, each one could cost you hundreds of dollars.

Maybe Tom in the future Hobie will pop a wave deflector at the front of a new model similar to the adventure island and place a bit more camber in the Hull and a higher seat position like the Revo. Ahhhh just another avenue to drop another 4K down!

Hey Matt and NoHuHu - this may be closer than you think. I was doing a tour of the Hobie Factory today ( a benefit of living in Southern California) and One little snippet I managed to squeeze out of the Hobie team was that they are currently testing a wave deflector for the AI and TI that will be able to be retro-fitted when released - THAT is great news! When asked about timing all they would say is "its not ready yet"